Sick Rumors
by DancingKirby
Summary: Chapter fic. One winter's day, Misawa stumbles into the nurse's office with a high fever. But, as Ayukawa will soon find out, that is the least of Misawa's troubles. Now rechecked for typos and redundancies that escaped my initial proofreading.
1. Morning of Day One

1A/N: This fic is not intended as an insult to any one author who writes Misawa fics. Rather, this is my attempt to show what I think is the correct characterization. I am sure that there are different ways of interpreting canon, but I still don't really get why many authors portray Misawa as such a domineering person.

That, and I wanted to take a bit of a break from ManjoumexAsuka.

This takes place a few weeks before Asuka is converted, and parts of it were hinted at in "The Outcast".

Misawa's symptoms are based on the symptoms I had when I had strep throat in 2003.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Maybe I should do that master disclaimer after all...

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This January was a stressful one for Ayukawa Emi. The weather was colder than one would expect for a tropical island, so there was a large spate of colds and other winter ailments.

Several people had slipped on ice patches, and an Obelisk Blue girl had broken her wrist. Some rather dim-witted Osiris Red students had even decided to go swimming when the air temperature was below freezing. Apparently, it was some sort of bet. Whatever the cause, Emi had been forced to deal with several cases of hypothermia and frostbite the next day.

Even when people weren't sick, they were causing mischief. People tried to go "ice-skating" by sliding over the frozen puddles on the ground. (In fact, that was how the one girl had broken her wrist).

One night, it had snowed. Not much; just enough to dust the ground. Nevertheless, Judai and his friends had managed to scrape up enough snow to hold a snowball fight. That would have been fine, if one of the snowballs hadn't hit a window in the gymnasium.

That particular snowball had happened to include some small rocks, so the window broke. No one got in trouble, but Emi had had to suspend all her classes to wait for the repair guy.

All of these events were almost more than Emi could handle. If one more thing happened, she would explode due to frustration!

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Naturally, one more thing happened.

Emi had been in the infirmary, taking advantage of a rare moment of solitude by organizing one of her file cabinets.

She then heard the door open.

For crying out loud, not ANOTHER one!

The person at the door hesitated.

Had she just said that aloud? Yes, she had.

Emi heard the door open again, as if the person were leaving.

This wasn't good. Emi WAS the nurse, so she had to care for sick students, whether she liked it or not.

Emi hurried into the main room of the infirmary as quickly as she could, to prevent the person from leaving.

It turned out that the person was Misawa Daichi. He had indeed been in the process of leaving. And he did not look healthy in the least.

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Emi had never gotten to know Misawa well. He was quiet; liked to keep to himself. But he seemed like a nice kid.

One time he had even balanced Emi's checkbooks, for which she was still grateful. Emi herself was hopeless at the task.

But that had been some time ago. This was now. Now, Misawa was still trying to leave, despite being on the verge of collapse. He kept mumbling that he was sorry he had bothered her.

Emi kept having to reassure him that he could stay. All the while, she was silently cursing herself for opening her big fat mouth like that.

Meanwhile, Misawa had finally been convinced to stay. Emi saw a note in his hand. She told Misawa to hand it over.

She had barely unfolded it before recognizing the...unique handwriting of Chronos. Apparently, Misawa had been in Chronos's class when he had just put his head on his desk and fallen asleep during the middle of a lecture.

Naturally, this was extremely uncharacteristic behavior for Misawa. Chronos had been so taken aback that he hadn't even bothered to scold Misawa. He had just woken him up and sent him to the infirmary.

It certainly seemed like Chronos had had the correct instincts. Misawa was on the verge of falling back asleep, only to be startled awake by a coughing fit.

For a split second, Emi wondered why no one had accompanied Misawa to the infirmary, to see that he got there okay. But the thought soon went away.

Emi helped Misawa remove his coat (he hadn't even bothered to take it off), and quickly took his temperature.

Uh-oh. 40 degrees (in Celsius; about 104 degrees Fahrenheit). He was sick, all right. And it looked to be much more than a cold.

Meanwhile, Misawa had fallen back to sleep. Emi just let him be. She would do further diagnostic tests later.

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An hour later, Misawa was still asleep, so Emi left him with an assistant and went to get lunch.

No sooner had she stepped out when she was accosted by a small group of girls. They looked very worried.

"Ayukawa-sensei! Are you all right?" one of them said.

"We saw that monster go into the infirmary, so we were so scared!" chimed in another.

Monster? Emi was completely confused, and said so.

"Haven't you heard? He's like the most perverted guy at school! He trips girls to look up their skirts, and he spies on them in the bath, and..." she listed all the horrible deeds this monster had done.

Ayukawa decided that she had to break this up right here and now.

"Okay, that's enough of that!" she said. "If someone were actually doing all these things, we would have caught him immediately. Besides, no one fitting that description has been in the infirmary today. Only one person has been in, and that was Misawa..."

She was cut off by the girls shrieking, "Don't say his name, Ayukawa-sensei!"

This was just ridiculous. Emi gave all the girls detention for spreading false rumors, and sent them off.

However, a sense of anxiety lingered. Not because she believed the rumors, of course. She just could not figure out what gentle Misawa could have done to provoke all those nasty stories.

Who would want to smear a perfectly good person's name like that?

A/N: I'm going to split this story into chapters. It won't be many chapters; maybe three or four. I'm doing it so I can write a chapter fic that I can actually complete in a reasonable amount of time!

This fic takes place over about a week, so I should be able to do that.


	2. Afternoon of Day One

A/N: I have definitely had a hard day. My class went okay, but my dog got a stroke and died. I thought maybe working on this fic would help take my mind off stuff.

Before you proceed, I'd like you all to observe a moment (or at least a second or two) of silence for Emma, the border collie mix.

Thank you.

Now on with the fic.

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When Emi got back from lunch, she went to check on Misawa right away.

He was awake, but barely so. He looked perfectly innocent; certainly not like a pervert!

He tried to greet Emi but this brought on another bout of coughing.

Emi hoped with all her being that this wasn't pneumonia. She had neither the time nor the resources to deal with something that serious.

To rule this out, the first thing Emi did was take out her stethoscope and listen to Misawa's lungs. They sounded perhaps slightly congested, but nothing too bad.

Good. That ruled out pneumonia, bronchitis, and most other nasty respiratory ailments.

Misawa now looked like he wanted to say something. Emi let him do so.

He said, in a very low voice, "If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could check my throat? It really hurts..."

Emi barely restrained an eye-roll. She asked, perhaps more sharply than she meant, "And why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I didn't want to bother you."

Geez, did this guy have self-esteem issues! Emi wondered if this had anything to do with the rumors. She hoped he hadn't heard them.

But she said nothing about this to Misawa. Instead, she simply stated, "Okay, I guess I'll have to take a throat swab. Let me go get the materials."

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Just as Emi suspected when she first heard about the sore throat, the swab tested positive for a strep infection.

That she could deal with. It just needed a lot of rest and antibiotics to dissipate.

By the time the results came in, classes were over. This was when students came into the infirmary to see their sick friends. No one was visiting with Misawa.

Could the rumors have even spread to his friends? She would have thought that Judai wouldn't be the type to listen to gossip.

However, now was not the time to think about gossip. Now was the time to try to get Misawa to eat his dinner.

"But you have to eat," she coaxed him. "You don't want to starve!"

"I'm sorry, Ayukawa-sensei, but I'm not hungry."

" You must eat something. I'm not leaving until you do."

This was getting a bit annoying. It was like talking to a precocious two-year-old!

But come to think of it, that rice did look rather bland. Heck, she wouldn't want to eat it, so she shouldn't make him do so.

"If you really want, you could have a condiment on that rice. It's really not good for your throat, but you could just use a tiny bit. We have soy sauce, wasabi-no, better avoid that one. Maybe you could have hot sauce instead. I'll see if we still have...what's wrong?"

For Misawa had suddenly turned his face into the pillow.

Again, Emi asked him what was wrong.

"Nothing..." he mumbled.

Emi raised an eyebrow. She knew he wasn't telling the truth, but she thought she should just leave Misawa alone for now.

As she walked out, she said to him, "I still expect you to eat at least some of that."

Her only answer was a muttered collection of seemingly random syllables. It was hard to tell for sure, because Misawa's face was still in the pillow.

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While Emi was waiting for Misawa to finish eating, a Ra Yellow student walked in. He was carrying a cardboard box.

Emi's hopes rose. Maybe Misawa would finally have some company.

Sadly, that proved to not be the case. The student just said, "Here's Misawa-kun's stuff. I have to go now-I'm missing the Pro League game on TV."

Emi wanted to say that the morale of a classmate was more important than some stupid game, but decided to be more subtle. She simply raised an eyebrow and coldly replied, "I see. Thank you."

"Kabayama-sensei sent me," added the student, as if trying to reassure Emi that he would have never helped out of his own free will.

Before Emi could say anything else, the student left.

Emi walked back into the sickroom, determined to socialize with Misawa. If no one else would visit him, SHE would!

He had finished eating. Sort of. It was quite apparent that Misawa had just taken a few bites and pushed the rest of the food around the plate.

Emi decided not to press the issue any further. She searched for something she could say. But there was really nothing TO say. Misawa's main interest was math, a subject which Emi hated.

As if sensing Emi's dilemma, Misawa abruptly said, "I'm sorry about what I did before."

Emi answered, "I forgive you. I'm sorry for not being more considerate."

After a moment of silence, Emi added, "Should we unpack this box?"

Misawa nodded.

There was nothing really exciting in the box. It was mostly stuff one would take to a sleepover.

There was also that day's homework assignments. It was quite amusing to see how happy Misawa got over some homework.

He was really a cute kid. It was a real shame that everyone was acting so coldly towards him!

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. There was no sound from Misawa. After Emi took his temperature again, he fell right to sleep.

Emi decided to sleep in the infirmary that night. She was really supposed to be supervising the dorm, but was allowed to stay here if someone was really sick.

She was just getting into bed when she heard moaning coming from he sick room.

It was enough to make Emi wonder if those rumors didn't have some truth after all. But she quickly realized that it wasn't THAT kind of moaning.

It sounded like Misawa was having a fever dream; most likely a nightmare.

She ran into the room to calm him down.

He soon went back to sleep, but not before muttering, "Don't hit me..."

Emi was confused. Had someone hit him? Maybe it was just a random dream intensified by the fever.

Or maybe not.

It took Emi quite a long time to get back to sleep.

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A/N: I forgot to point this out last chapter, so I'll do it now. There will be no REAL romance in this fic. A crush on Misawa's part is a possibility, however.


	3. Day Two

Emi was woken up early the next morning by someone tapping on her window.

Now, Emi was no stranger to waking up before everyone else. In fact, her job demanded it.

However, 4 AM seemed just a bit too early to be knocking on people's windows.

Emi stuck her head out of the window and yelled at whoever was doing the knocking.

To her irritation, she saw it was the girls from yesterday.

"Ayukawa-sensei, I can't believe that you survived!" one of them said.

"Are you sure that the monster didn't attack you?" said another.

Detention had apparently done nothing to deter them.

Emi shouted, "Okay, that's it! This time you get a week of detention for spreading false rumors AND disturbing a teacher! And if you do this again, I will talk to the principal!"

The girls scattered.

The inhabitants of the infirmary had been woken up by the yelling, judging by the lights that were being turned on.

Emi walked over there from her room and told them to go back to sleep, but found that she couldn't do the same. Oh well. Now that she was up, she could finish clearing out that file cabinet.

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That file cabinet was hopeless, Emi decided. She'd just have to dump out all the stuff and organize it from there.

Thankfully, it was breakfast time, so the inevitable was delayed for now.

Emi went around doing the routime morning check of everybody in the infirmary before getting the food out.

There weren't that many people, and most of them were still asleep, so that task went by pretty quickly.

Only one person was left now and that was...

Hey, where did Misawa go?

Oh, there he was! He had been hiding under the covers for some reason.

Emi pulled the covers off, only to find that Misawa had fallen asleep hunched over his math textbook.

She woke him up and said, "You did your homework last night, didn't you? So why are you looking at the book now?"

Misawa attempted to reply, but whimpered in pain.

Apparently, his throat had gotten so bad that he had lost his voice.

Emi quickly checked it. Sure enough, it was swollen so much that there was no way he could eat a proper breakfast without terrible agony.

His fever hadn't decreased noticeably, either.

Well, he couldn't just stay by himself like this! Any worse and they'd have to take him to a mainland hospital!

With a sigh of resignation, Emi cancelled all her classes for the day.

The first thing she had to do was get something for Misawa's throat. She would have to hurry, because Misawa looked like he just wanted to die.

As she was heading to the supply room, her cell phone rang.

She answered it. To her great surprise, it was one of her friends from back home! They hadn't seen each other since summer break.

Well, she should really be getting the medicine, but she was sure it could wait for a few minutes while she had a brief chat!

30 MINUTES LATER

Emi finally hung up. That had been a fun talk!

Even though it had been about trivial subjects such as makeup and the latest celebrity news, Emi had appreciated the short break from her job.

Now what time was it?

Ai-yi-yi. She'd been talking longer than she had planned!

And what had she been doing again?

Oh HELL. The medicine! She had forgotten all about it!

Emi ran off so fast that she almost tripped over her own feet.

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She felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.

How could she just have forgotten like that about a student in pain?

Especially THIS student!

Sure enough, Misawa could barely lift his head up from his pillow when Emi finally got back. He looked for all the world like he was about to cry.

Emi apologized so much that she felt a bit undignified.

Misawa seemed to have already forgiven her, but who could ever tell for sure with him?

Thankfully, things improved after breakfast, when the medicine finally kicked in.

Misawa went back to his textbook, and Emi tried to sort out those darned files some more.

At lunch time, Emi just decided to let the assistant sort through it.

Misawa was still involved in his textbook. Emi jokingly asked him if he was going to do every problem in the book.

Imagine her suprise when he nodded with all signs of seriousness!

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Finally, around 3 PM, Misawa finally got a visitor! It was Judai.

Emi let Judai in the building so enthusiastically that he actually looked a bit scared for a second.

Now that that was taken care of, Emi decided to give the girls' dorm a quick inspection. After all, she hadn't been there since yesterday morning!

Everything was fine, so she was soon heading back. Judai was just leaving.

Misawa looked quite a bit happier during the rest of the day. Emi hoped it would last a while.

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Unfortunately, the dreams happened again that night. The mystery person in the dream was still abusing poor Misawa.

And apparently he didn't know why, because he kept saying that he "hadn't meant to".

Hadn't meant to do what? It had to have some basis in truth, for the dream had occurred two nights in a row.

Tomorrow Emi would interview everyone in the girls' dorm, because that was where all this seemed to have started.

While she was at it, she'd look into those rumors as well. It was high time to find out who had started them.


	4. Morning of Day Three

As soon as the sun was up, Emi was running off to the girls' dorm for their little "chat".

Of course, she had had to check that Misawa was well enough to be left with the assistant. His throat was still bad, but at least his fever had dropped into a more acceptable range. The coughing was virtually gone.

She had left him doing more problems in the math textbook.

When Emi reached the dorm, she noted that the girls were just waking up. The dining hall was about half-full of girls hunched sleepily over bowls of rice or cereal.

Well, she'd just have to wait a bit. It would be no use lecturing when no one was alert enough to listen!

However, Emi couldn't help but get a bit impatient, especially since this was so important and everyone was going so slowly.

Slowly, the dining hall filled up. It was only when everybody was accounted for that someone finally noticed that Emi was there.

Apparently,Emi had a less than happy expression on her face, because one girl asked, "What's wrong, Ayukawa-sensei?"

Emi answered, "Finish your breakfast and get dressed. We all have something very important to discuss."

At those words, a curious murmur spread through the room. The girls seemed to make more of an effort to get ready quickly.

Finally, everybody was more or less ready.

Emi ushered everybody into the lobby.

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Once they were there, Emi wasted no time in beginning her lecture.

"Okay everybody, I need for everybody to pay close attention. I am here to discuss the spreading of rumors that has been going on recently in this dorm."

At this, some girls looked at each other as if to silently say, "Well, I certainly haven't been spreading rumors..."

Emi pressed on.

"These rumors seem to have little to no basis in truth, and are apparently designed to torment a well-behaved and polite student at this school. But that is not the worst part."

Now the girls seemed to be more than a bit freaked out.

Emi added a pause for dramatic effect, then stated, "I am even beginning to suspect physical bullying may be involved..."

At this, one girl piped up, "Ayukawa-sensei, we would never hit anyone without reason! You know that!"

'Do I really?', thought Emi briefly. Instead, she said, "All of this is getting out of hand, so I have decided to nip it in the bud right here and now."

She then told the girls everything that she had seen and heard over the past forty-eight hours.

All at once, the girls started talking. Dozens of questions, comments, and complaints were being thrown out simultaneously.

"What are you talking about?"

"But Ayukawa-sensei, it's all true!"

"I heard that stuff from my friend who heard it from Momoe, but I just didn't believe it!"

"But it's the truth!"

"I didn't do anything. Don't punish me!"

"I'm confused..."

"BUT IT'S TRUE!"

"SHUT UP!" Emi finally bellowed.

Everyone shut up immediately.

She apologized, and then said, "Now, what makes you think it's true?"

Just as she had feared, the round of babbling started over again.

Emi quickly put it to a stop with, "One person at a time! Junko may go first."

Junko said in a rush, "There was this amazon and she defeated Misawa-san in a duel and she used a magic spell and it turned Misawa-san into a pervert and..."

As the explanation continued, Emi thought she vaguely remembered something like that happening. She doubted the magic spell part, however.

Junko ended her run-on sentence with, "So he says bad things to girls and tries to spy on them and that's maybe why they hit him!"

Asuka slumped down in her chair. Obviously, she knew something that Emi did not know.

Emi demanded Asuka to speak up.

Asuka admitted that she had been a girl who had hit Misawa. Apparently, she had been in a bad mood, and Misawa had said some remark which could be interpreted as perverted.

All the girls shouted in unison, "See! It's true!"

Emi replied, "Okay, that was just one incident. And Asuka is sorry for overreacting, AREN'T YOU, ASUKA?"

Emi looked so scary that all Asuka could do was nod meekly.

Emi continued, "Now, as for the other stuff...has anyone actually SEEN Misawa do all these things?"

The general consensus was no, THEY THEMSELVES hadn't, but they had heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend, so it MUST be true!

Emi said exasperatedly, "Don't you all get it? Nothing HAPPENED! You just convinced yourselves that it did! Rumors get people nowhere, so I want you all to stop spreading these lies right now!"

"Yes, Ayukawa-sensei," muttered everyone.

"Good. Now, it's time for you all to go to class. Now quit complaining-you know Saturday's a half-day!"

Everybody shuffled off.

As Emi walked over to the gymnasium to get class set up, she was glad that she took care of one thing. However, she had a feeling that reversing the damage caused by the rumors might be much more difficult.

She would have to find a way to get through to Misawa. But how?


	5. Afternoon of Day Three

A/N: I finally decided to update just so I could get closer to finishing!

And after this chapter, I might skip a day or two, so it's kind of getting near the end. I hope.

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Emi walked out of the gym. The girls had just left. They were all chattering happily away about weekend plans.

Today had been an unusually productive class. No one had begged for a break, and everyone had exercised to her full ability.

The girls were apparently trying their best not to get on Emi's bad side again.

Maybe she should lecture them every morning!

Emi smiled at the thought of a daily scolding as a pep talk.

But then she got serious. She had a mission, and it would start as soon as she got back to the infirmary.

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The sick room was deserted when Emi did her usual scan of it.

They must be in the TV room. The occupants of the infirmary were allowed two hours of TV a day, and they typically used up some of that time around lunch.

Sure enough, the half-dozen or so students who were sick today were grouped around the TV, looking with glazed eyes at a soap opera rerun.

Not that Emi payed attention to soap operas! Okay, maybe she watched a minute or two here and there...or maybe even a full episode here and there...but she wasn't nearly as obsessed as some women!

However, what was on TV was nowhere near as intriguing as the positioning of the people watching it.

Oddly enough, they seemed to be sitting/slouching/lying down in a rough semicircle formation.

The reason was apparent almost right away. Misawa was slumped in the middle of the room. The other kids were trying to sit as far away from him as they could.

Emi immediately reached for the remote and turned off the TV.

Some kids grumbled. Others were too sick to do more than look at Emi plaintively.

Emi explained, "You want to save some time for the good programs this evening, don't you?"

Of course, the REAL reason was to stop this game of "sit-as-far-away-from-the-nerd-as-possible". Obviously, Emi didn't mention that tidbit of information.

To further divert the students' suspicions, Emi then said brightly, "Who wants lunch?"

Well, want it or not, they were going to eat it, even though it was a half-hour earlier than usual.

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Everyone was now distracted with eating. Good. Now Emi could try to talk to Misawa.

He was now well enough to sit at a table in the lunchroom. He was slowly sipping the refrigerated protein shake that was given to students who couldn't eat solid food.

And it didn't look like he was particularly enjoying it, either.

Well, it wasn't Emi's fault that the sickroom's food was crappy. She'd have to write to Seto Kaiba about increasing the infirmary's budget.

But...Emi was letting her mind wander yet again. It was imperative for her to have her full attention on Misawa for now.

He had noticed she was there by now, and was looking up at her curiously.

Emi cleared her throat and started, "We have to talk about things..."

At once, Misawa took his tray and wordlessly moved to the other end of the table.

It was no use trying to be nice. However, Emi knew that Misawa would not disobey a direct order.

So she said, "Meet me in my office at two. Don't be late."

Misawa reluctantly nodded.

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Sure enough, Misawa was knocking on her office door at two PM.

He'd even gotten dressed in his regular clothes.

Emi had gotten out a notepad (since Misawa still couldn't talk for long), a pencil, and some medicine for just in case.

She hoped she didn't look too formal and unapproachable, sitting at her desk like this. Not that she should worry about that. She was the teacher, after all.

As soon as Misawa was seated, Emi said, "I have talked to the female students, and they will not spread any more rumors about you unless they want a severe punishment."

Misawa looked quite embarrassed.

Emi rushed on, "Which is what I want to talk to you about. Something must have happened to start these rumors, and I want to find out what."

Misawa mumbled something into his hand.

Emi told him to either speak up or write it down.

Finally, something seemed to snap in Misawa. He looked Emi in the eye and whispered, "It's true...it's all true...I am a pervert!"

Emi couldn't believe her ears. Could the fever have messed with Misawa's mind so much that he was starting to believe the rumors himself?

As calmly as she could, Emi asked Misawa to explain what he meant.

Misawa replied, "It's not quite like how they say. I don't TRY to do anything wrong. I just try to talk to girls, and it never sounds right!'

Emi, feeling relieved, said, "Is that all? Well, that's just the girls not getting to know you well enough! It doesn't mean you're a pervert!"

Misawa was looking very uncomfortable. He started biting his lower lip. Finally, he abruptly said, "I have to leave."

"But we were just getting somewhere! You can't just leave now!"

Misawa sat quietly for several more seconds, then repeated more emphatically that he had to leave.

This time, Emi let him go.

As Misawa ran out, Emi reflected on what she had just learned.

The meeting had not been a total waste of time, but there was a lot more that needed to be discussed.

Emi briefly considered not bothering Misawa anymore, but decided that was not an option. Whatever the problem was, it was evidently eating away at Misawa's self-image.

Now the question was: how would Emi get Misawa to tell her what was wrong?


	6. Day Four to Day Six

A/N: We interrupt this fic to bring you a rant involving the latest GX episode.

HOW DARE THEY? HOW DARE THEY DO THAT TO MISAWA?

For those of you who watch the dub, or just don't want spoilers, I won't say exactly what they did. However, I WILL say that it is degrading, humiliating, and represents everything that this fic is against!

Ahem...thank you...we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. In other words, Chapter Six.

P.S. There will still be unresolved issues for Misawa at the end of this. Emi will not find everything out. This is necessary, due to what happens in canon. However, it's rather likely that I will make an epilogue chapter.

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At first, Emi thought it was a coincidence that Misawa didn't go to the sickroom cafeteria for dinner. She thought Misawa was just tired when she walked in to take his temperature and found him asleep.

By the next morning though, Emi could see the pattern: Misawa was trying his best to avoid Emi.

Perhaps she had pried too far. It wasn't like she hadn't done that before.

But...she couldn't just sit here and do NOTHING!

The school didn't have a certified psychologist, so Emi had to assume those duties.

That, and she actually CARED for Misawa. He was like the little brother that Emi had never had.

Emi knew that it wasn't exactly encouraged to form strong bonds with just one student, but who COULDN'T with a guy like Misawa?

He needed the extra attention, and no one knew that better than Emi.

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In the afternoon, Emi walked in the sickroomunder the pretense of vacuuming.

Misawa was sitting on his bed. He was reading his textbook yet again, and pointedly ignoring Emi.

Emi kept running her vacuum near his bed until the floor surrounding it was spotless, but Misawa didn't even budge.

Emi finally realized that this was pointless after she had vacuumed the area six times.

She switched the vacuum off.

Misawa still did nothing.

Emi tried to take the textbook out of his hands. Misawa's hands might as well have been made out of iron, for all the success Emi was having.

Okay. She'd tried to do this subtly. However, it looked like Emi had to be the one to talk first.

Finally, she sternly ordered Misawa to put the textbook away.

He did so, but still made no eye contact with Emi.

Emi started with, "If I made you uncomfortable yesterday, I apologize. However, we have to talk about this. It will do no good for you to just keep this all bottled up."

Misawa shifted slightly, and was still not making eye contact, but at least he was now facing Emi's general direction.

Emi had nothing more to say, so she waited for Misawa to reply.

At first, nothing. Then he said just one word, in a low voice.

"Stop..."

Emi, confusedly, answered, "Stop what? I'm confused."

More silence. Then, Misawa said something utterly baffling.

"Stop being nice to me."

"Wha...why would I do that? I'm being nice to you because I care about you!"

Misawa was apparently struggling to explain.

"You don't...well, you may think you care, but you can't...not really. You're a teacher, and I'm just a student who apparently doesn't deserve any respect, not after what happened..."

Emi remembered the far-fetched tale she had heard from Junko. Could this be what Misawa was referring to?

She was dying to hear more, but decided that Misawa should only tell what he felt like telling.

Misawa finally looked over at Emi and said, "You must have heard. They all talked about it for weeks. They thought I couldn't hear, but I did. They kept saying I was pathetic, and the girls all started to...well, you've heard that part at least..."

It was obvious that this was very difficult for Misawa to recount. However, by putting this together with what Junko said, Emi thought she knew what was going on.

It was all just ignorance on the part of the other students. Because Misawa was seduced by one woman, all the girls assumed Misawa would act the same way around them. And the boys...they maybe lost respect for Misawa because he lost so badly.

Of course, that could be completely wrong. However, it seemed like the most likely scenario.

That was a lot to just keep locked away. Emi couldn't see how ANYBODY could live with a shunning so sudden and severe.

In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if the stress had actually weakened Misawa's resistance against sickness. He had suffered an unusually pernicious bout of strep throat.

Emi said none of this reasoning aloud. Instead, she simply stated that she hoped saying these things would make Misawa feel better.

He shrugged.

Emi knew that now was the time for her to leave.

She had to say one more thing, though. As she was walking out the door, she said softly, "It's okay for you to cry, you know."

Misawa looked at her and shook his head.

"I'm way past that point," he muttered sadly.

Although Emi desperately wanted to help more, she knew that she had done all that was in her power.

She would definitely ask Chronos about hiring a counselor or psychologist, to prevent things like this from happening again.

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For the rest of the time he was in the infirmary, Misawa said little to Emi. However, he did acheive his goal of doing every problem in the textbook. He seemed to be at least somewhat proud of this.

Judai remained the only student who had visited, and even he only visited that one time.

Naturally, when the time came for Misawa to leave, Emi was more than slightly disappointed.

For six days, Misawa had someone who could be considered a friend to him. However, he was now going back to everyday life, where his and Emi's paths would seldom cross.

Of course, she'd see Misawa during gym and health class. However, she would have no time to talk to him, since there were more than fifty other students in the room.

Well, that couldn't be helped. All Emi could do was hope that the other students would finally come to their senses. And-this was a bit wicked-she actually have hoped that Misawa would get another serious but non-lethal sickness/injury, so he could come back.

Well, for now Misawa was healthy again, so he would have to leave.

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He did say goodbye, though.

Emi was in her office, cursing that horrible, naughty file cabinet, when the door opened.

Misawa was standing nervously in the doorway. All his things had already been packed.

Emi was so surprised that she banged her head on an open drawer of the cabinet.

After giving the cabinet another round of curse words and a good kick, Emi turned her attention to Misawa.

He was actually smiling! Well...as close to smiling as he could get, anyway.

He then shuffled his feet and said, "Thanks for trying. Really."

Before Emi could reply, he ran out.

It wasn't exactly a dramatic exit like the kind in movies, but it was close enough.

Emi really would miss him.

THE END

A/N: Yay! I managed to make this the last chapter!

But now I know that this NEEDS an epilogue chapter. Maybe when Misawa is in the White Association...I dunno.

But this is the first time I've more or less finished a chapter fic!


	7. Epilogue

A/N: Here it is! The epilogue!

I considered using the events from Episode 96, but I was getting too many dirty ideas. So I just decided to stick to Misawa's days in the White Association.

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Six Months Later

The air-conditioning repairman was LATE!

In fact, it was the second time he was late. He hadn't even showed up the day before, so Emi had been forced to reschedule the appointment.

It looked like today the repairman would give an encore presentation of not showing up.

And of course, the air just HAPPENED to break down in the middle of a nasty, humid heat wave! It was now so hot in the infirmary, Emi was sure she was going to faint.

Maybe it would actually be cooler outside. At least Emi might be able to catch a breeze coming off the ocean.

And that was how Emi came to be sitting in a shady patch near the White Dorm, desperately fanning her face.

THEY probably had the air-conditioning on full-blast! The jerks.

Emi was actually considering begging the dorm for temporary shelter from the heat when a commotion broke out.

"Yes, we KNOW that you've won some medals, now GET LOST!" a boy was shouting.

Emi got up. She had no real power over this White Association, but maybe a threat of detention would break up this fight.

But...it wasn't a true fight. Emi could not see who the other person was, because a clump of trees blocked her view. Nevertheless, she could clearly see that it was only the visible person who was doing the arguing.

This person suddenly saw Emi watching all this and quickly shouted at the unknown person,"Okay, you got lucky this time!"

He ran off, but not before casting Emi a dirty look.

Okay, now she would just check to see if this other person was okay, and then she'd...

Oh no, NOT AGAIN!

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She had been fervently hoping that all that crap had been halted months ago!

For once again, it was Misawa who had been picked as the target of senseless verbal abuse.

Misawa was not making this easy for Emi.

He adamantly denied that any bullying had taken place, even though Emi had been a witness to it.

What was more, he had scraped up his knee pretty badly when the bully had shoved him to the ground.

Misawa saw nothing wrong with this, either.

"I told you already, it was my fault! I was in his way, so he taught me a lesson!"

Misawa was shouting this as Emi was dragging him to the infirmary by the arm.

Just what had this society done to Misawa? He no longer bothered to be hurt by what others did to him!

When they got to the infirmary, Emi noted that the repairman had picked this time to decide to fix the air conditioning.

Oh sure. He had had all afternoon to arrive, only to show up at the least convenient time possible!

Emi glared at the repairman when his back was turned to her.

Misawa tried to use this opportunity to try to sneak out the door.

Fortunately, Emi saw this and held out a hand to stop him.

In her best teacher voice, Emi said, "Do you WANT an infection in your knee, young man?"

Misawa apparently decided that he didn't, because he finally let Emi get out the first-aid kit.

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When Emi was preoccupied with cleaning the scrape, Misawa said something very random and surprising.

"Ayukawa-sensei, you should join the Kessha!"

Emi was kind of expecting an attempt at recruiting, but was not expecting it to be so out of the blue. She simply said, "Thanks, but no thanks..."

Misawa was not deterred. He kept going on and on about how the Kessha was the only sacred thing, and all people who weren't part of it were evil.

"I don't want you to be evil, Ayukawa-sensei! You'd like it there. You would probably become one of Saiou-sama's advisers! And you could..."

Suddenly, the glow went out of Misawa's eyes. He looked at the floor, embarrased.

Emi forced herself to not ask him to finish the statement. Anyway, she was done, so it was time for Misawa to go back to his dorm.

But before he left, Emi reminded him to tell her immediately if any more bullying took place. She promised that she would try to find a way to punish the offenders.

Emi had hoped to make Misawa feel better with this statement. Instead, he actually seemed to be angered. He paused to glare at Emi.

"Weren't you listening before? I told you, I was wrong, and they corrected me! Stop interfering with our plans! I'm perfectly fine with getting hurt, if it means that the Kessha can fulfill its plans more easily!"

Misawa then sniffed and slammed the door behind him.

Emi now had a headache. What had this...cult...done? She just couldn't see any merit in a society that turned its members into self-sacrificing robots!

Well, there was still hope. Maybe Misawa would come to realize just how much he was being abused.

If that happened, Emi vowed that she'd be there.

Until it happened, all she could do was hope.

(A/N: Writing this fic made me really want to write a romance involving these two characters. However, I promised that there would be no romance in this fic. And anyway, I'm generally against student/teacher pairings in fanfiction.

I guess it COULD be written, but I think I'll leave it to someone who has more courage than me.


End file.
